Ibiza - Bohemian Ground Zero Part 3 (final part)

The world is so big, and there is so much to see that when I go somewhere on vacation, I always think 'well, I'm only going to come here once so I better make the most of it and see everything'. This is not a particularly relaxing way to approach a holiday and if it was up to me there would be scheduled explorations, and activities from dawn to dusk, so that I could feel at the end of the holiday that I had DONE that place, you know, seen it all and experienced it as fully as possible... You can imagine that this approach to holidaying doesn't go down well with my more well adjusted family. They want to relax...I'm sorry, what did you say? Relax? Don't know the meaning of the word! Anyway, they want to lay around on beaches and lurk around in coffee shops  and generally take it easy... Hmmmm....there were compromises on both sides! What a long winded way of saying that we did a lot of stuff in the short week that we were there and I am going to tell you about 2 of those things now...

We took the bus to the very famous Hippy Market in Punta Arabi which was more northeast on the island and much lovelier than the scrubby little resort we were staying in. Huge trees, masses of vibrant flowers and the famous hippy market of course. If, like me, you are used to frequenting Camden Market in London, then this place will come as no surprise, so for me it was a bit of an expensive tourist trap. But for the less market savvy, you might actually quite like it. It isn't all tie dyed tunics and bongs..there was lots of fantastic handmade leather bags that had me drooling, but I draw the line at paying €250 for a handbag on a market stall, no matter the eyewatering beauty of it...I still feel pain, just thinking about some of those bags....
There were also loads of great boots and boot accessories... They were also very expensive but I sneakily took this picture because I reckon if I ever have a spare half an hour, I could knock up some of these little boho boot jackets... or whatever the hell they are...

The day after the Hippy Market we had another big excursion by boat to the Can Marçà Caves which are found in the north of the island in the Port of Sant Miguel. We took an hour and a half boat trip hugging the island to the port of Sant Miguel, where we were informed by our ear shatteringly loud guide, that the island at the mouth of the port was recently purchased by a Russian Oligarch for €30 million! That is rather a lot of money I think you'll agree! It had a very fortress like appearance and I would not have been at all surprised to see snipers up there or some kind of evil mastermind super villain activity... We didn't see that...(was a little disappointed) This is a picture I took later, when I was climbing to the caves...

Before we got to the caves however, we had the guts clutching experience of being driving by a lunatic, who was our tour guide. Well I say tour guide, but really he just drove the bus from the port to the caves high up along the cliffs. Picture him, I felt that it was very likely he was a german man who visited Ibiza many years ago, for some serious hardcore clubbing, and all that entails (ok drugs...I mean drugs), and shall we just kindly say that it left its mark upon him. He was very brown, teeth and crewcut hair very white, designer sunglasses, didn't speak much but laughed a great deal and grinned more than is natural for the human face. He got us crammed in the poky little minivan, there was no seat belt for me but thankfully the kids had seat belts. My chair was only attached to the actual minivan by a few loose screws so every time he braked or accelerated hard (and that was all the time) my chair would jerk violently. He then drove thusly around a winding clifftop road and I feel sick just telling you about it! Anyway, we got there and I kid thee not, everyone just started laughing as they got out of the van! That kind of laughter that is one part hilarity and 9 parts relief. 

Anyway, we went into the caves and they were lovely. I love stalagmites and stalactites and all that limestoney loveliness, very magical...

This particular grotto was called the 'Buddha Grotto' on account of the supposedly Buddhalike main blobby limestone thingy, and I grant you, it does, with a stretch, look like Buddha, but really, once you've been to Ibiza, you start seeing Buddhas everywhere!

Then we had to drive back with crazy clubber man. We all knew what we were getting into, well...sort of. The drive back down the hill got us back to the port in one piece, which is more that I can say for the van. I had my suspicions about that vehicle from the get go, but when I opened the sliding door to get out, I slid the door right off! Yes, door, not on van anymore! I felt very bad that I had broken his van but I also felt amazed that we had been driven in that hunk of junk from the beginning. 

I could tell you a million other things about Ibiza, places to go and stuff, but really, you just got to go and have an adventure of discovery yourself.

Have a great weekend and whatever you're doing or wherever you are going, make it an adventure!

Ibiza - Bohemian Ground Zero Part 2

Yes, the shopping in old town was amazing, even the kids shops were fantastic, there were not many, and like everything else, rather expensive, but I so would've bought these trainers if they were in my size!

My overall impressions of Ibiza were that it was a rather dull scrubby place, as far as the nature is concerned and only alleviated by the explosions of pink and purple flowers all over the place. The nature gets more lush as you go north but where we were staying, it was all rather dusty and kind of desiccated. That might be why the colours people wear are so exuberant, to make up for all that dry dullness. I'm being a bit harsh but I am very keen on lush woodlands and verdant nature and I didn't see much of that, apart from the beautiful flowers. Im also keen on fabulous clothing and boho accessories and I did find that! In great abundance!

Another thing I love are spaces that are half indoors and half outdoors where plants grow and sunlight dapples through. A lot of restaurants and bars are like that there... it's like a fairy wonderland...with waiters. 

 Almost every restaurant we ate in had this magical feeling... and there were a lot of buddhas everywhere! It was how you could tell if you were in a tourist trap restaurant or an authentic Spanish restaurant. Don't get me wrong, I love Buddha, how could you not? With all that calm universal understanding and stuff, but there was something a bit plastic and fake about the sheer quantity of them. Not that I'm one to cast stones... I have Buddha on one of my cushion collections!

Anyway, next instalment will be coming on Friday.... You'll get to hear about the mini bus door mishap and Buddha might get another little mention....

Ibiza Bohemian Ground Zero Part 1

It may seem like I've been a bit rubbish about posting up on the Friday afternoons like I usually do but really, I have the best of excuses...last Friday I was flying to Ibiza and this Friday I flew back... So this is going to be the first installment of a juicy series of blog posts coming over this next week...

I was super excited to be going to Ibiza as it is the source of all that lovely bohemian style I love these days, the Bohemain Ground Zero, if you like, and I wanted to see EVERYTHING! And by 'see everything', I mean 'buy everything' of course!!!! 

The day after we arrived we made our way to Eivissa, Ibizas main town, and we meandered around old town poking into all the shops. There was plenty of naff touristy bollocks of course, but within all that plastic rubbish, there were some real fab shops...

                  

The really strong trends were for ice cream colours, just a bit stronger than pastels and masses of lace tunics and silk everywhere.

I bought a few things but the best thing I got was a brand new wedding ring. My hubby and I had rings made for us when we got married. We wanted skulls, with diamond eyes, and although we got that, they were more 'Camden market' than Codognato, so we were never satisfied with them. Add to that, that hubby no longer fits his, we have been looking for rings for years...never finding anything interesting or different...until I found this....

                    

I love this ring for many  reasons not least that it only cost €15!!, seriously! I love a bargain!

Hubby got a nice manly silver band... No nonsense!

So, I'll be continuing my stories of Ibiza this week, including my accidental destruction of a mini bus... Ok, that sounds a bit dramatic, but I did rip the door off! True.

Fashion Parties & Helsingborg

I went down to Helsingborg for a fabulous event last weekend. It was a fashion spectacular with Van Asch in collaboration with designer Malin from E.MallaS. I bought a few of Malin's super dresses myself and I got first pick! Yippee!!!!. There were about 100 women all madly trying on frocks and drinking champagne and it was so much fun, live music too and it went on until about 10 at night...There was also another 2 big fashion events going on at the same time in Helsingborg, but we won the competition of who had the most visitors! Of course!!!

We were staying at the E.MallaS HQ which is actually a beautiful huge big home and conference centre in a park. It was so weird to step outside the front door into this every morning!

Quite a treat and the flowers were amazing!

I got back to work on monday and have been madly trying to finish my catalogue artwork to get it off to the printers... Just got back the photos that Janice Issitt took of me when she was visiting a couple of weeks ago and I'm super pleased... I'll bung this in the catalogue somewhere!

I am off to Ibiza tomorrow for a week of well earned vacationing and shopping and I'll take lots of pics to show you in my next blog, when I get back...